Presidents are supposed to be compassionate. President Obama is showing his true colors as his Department of Justice (DOJ) sent out a memo last week on medical marijuana use. by Kenn Jacobine
(libertarian)
Monday, July 4, 2011
The memo directed the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Attorneys offices nationwide to crack down on medical marijuana shops by making the investigation and prosecution thereof a top priority. Even though the (DOJ) denies it, this newest memo reverses the Administrations previous policy on medical marijuana use. Under the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, Obama gave habitual pain sufferers and the terminally ill hope by making enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) with regards to medical marijuana use a low priority. His election cycle about face is uncompassionate as it will bring great harm to many who rely on cannabis for relief.
It has been determined that medical pot is effective in treating the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and epilepsy. As far back as 1975, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that showed oral ingestion of marijuana is effective in relieving nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. Other benefits include the lessening of depression caused by cancer and an increase in appetite which allows cancer patients to live better more comfortable lives.
But the Administration is bent on denying this needed drug to patients. In last weeks DOJ memo, the reason given for increased enforcement of the CSA was that, Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and saleofmarijuana is a serious crime that provides a significant sourceofrevenue to large scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels. Well, in the first place, marijuanas danger is surely negated by the medical benefits of the substance. In the second place, the reason criminal gangs and cartels are making so much money on pot is precisely because Congress has made it illegal! Is there no sanity in Washington?
In the final analysis this is not the federal governments issue to legislate. Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to regulate what we ingest into our bodies. The 10th Amendment reserves that power to the states. Referring back to the memo, it states that individuals, whocultivate, sell or distribute marijuana are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcementoffederal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcementofthe CSA. Nonsense, just because Congress doesnt consult the Constitution before enacting legislation doesnt mean what it says goes. It is proper and necessary for the states to interpret the Constitution and in this case take a stand against the federal government for violating their sovereignty over substance policy by nullifying the CSA.
Of course the President could nullify the CSA as well in much the same way he has stated that he will rightly nullify the Defense of Marriage Act. He simply could refuse to enforce the law. But, he answered that question in the memo released by his DOJ last week. Apparently, political points are more important to the President than relief for the suffering and the supremacy of the Constitution.
Kenn Jacobine teaches internationally and maintains a summer residence in North Carolina
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Posted By: Charles Queen
Date: July 5, 2011 04:06:45 AM
[COLOR="darkred"][/COLOR]Obooboo has been wrong about everything he has done or has attempted to do ever since he got into office.He was theone that said hnads off on states that have legalized medicinal marijuana.Apparently the DEA and other federal agency's do not think that they have to follow his orders even though being the president he technicaly is their over all boss.I on't know if he is afraid of them or this was just another one of his many false promises of which there are many indeed.The smartest thing our country could do is to legalize marijuana nation wide for adult use as well as medicinal use
Posted By: JohnCap523
Date: July 5, 2011 12:24:20 PM
While I disagree with you on almost everything, and Charles Queen is completely off-base, on THIS topic I agree. Obama has backpedaled on his stance on legalizing pot, not only for medical use, but for any use. The so-called war on drugs, another Reagan ordeal gone horribly wrong, needs to end. Millions of people are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, the value of now illegal drugs has escalated because of this absurd endeavor and more and more people are victimized. It's nothing more than a ploy by the businesses running and building prisons to capture vast revenues. The "wear" itself is nothing more than dog chasing tail. While the law is the law, Obama can direct the DoJ to just STFU. What's driving this is the rapid expansion of cannabis groceries that is annoying those who, on one hand love free markets (so long as they benefit) but don't like seeing free markets develop without their handprints on them.
It has been determined that medical pot is effective in treating the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and epilepsy.
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I'd like to see that determination. If it's more than anecdotia and assertion, I'd be surprised.
THC is, on the other hand, a very effective anti-emetic. Nausea is often a side-effect of legitimate treatments for many conditions, and a great many of the anti-emetics used to control that often either don't, or they have further side-effects that require further medication. The only known side-effect of TCH is that [short-term] it creates confusion and stupor, and [long-term] it obliterates ambition, desire, and vitality.
For better or worse, only the FDA has the authority to call a substance a [medicinal] drug. You can take any popular vote you want to in Berkeley, San Francisco, or Colorado, and it doesn't change that. You don't vote "medical" marijuana into existence. The FDA decrees it. And they haven't. Ergo, marijuana is not a medicine.
...this is completely without regard to my personal feelings of the matter, so I don't want to hear any of the standard denunciations. I, for one, do not recognize the FDA's legitimacy in the first place; there's no Constitutional authorization for any part of the federal government to fret and stew over medication. But the reality is: they took that authority, and with Congressional allowance. They define what is "medication".
And there's a few problems with our concept of medication that legitimately exist:
1] how much THC causes how much physiological reaction?
2] do we know that it is even the THC that does it?
The answer to the first is "Hell if I know" ... and that comes from the researchers [in those nations where research is allowed]; the answer to the second is "Well ... we think so ... but we're not completely certain ...".
There isn't a synthesized THC tablet on the planet [again, where the substance isn't paranoiacally denounced] that has the same efficacy as smoking a joint. So it's "probably" THC ... in combination with some other compound[s] also in the plant.
These are real obstacles to the legitimacy of marijuana as a drug. And the FDA has done no one any favors by treating it as the Demon Weed out of a bad B-flick.
But I'd remind everyone that the purpose of government [in general] is to further its own power base. Most individuals who seek to participate in government do so, at least in part, because it provides them power over their fellow citizens. No government agency worth it's Congressional appropriation is going to say, "No, we have enough power already ... really, let the people alone on this one...". Not going to happen.
The purpose of several agencies under the DOJ is to pester and annoy citizens on the subject of their recreational drugs. They had money given to them to do that - if they don't spend it, they won't get it next year, and then they'll be out of a job. So pester and annoy they will! It's no more complicated than that.
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The so-called war on drugs, another Reagan ordeal gone horribly wrong ...
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I don't care what you think of any of the past prezes; but if you don't like him just say "I don't like Reagan" and be done with it. ...though with a marijuana lead-in, it would be somewhat out of place here.
The "war on drugs" precedes Reagan; Nixon was the first to use that specific term in those exact words, and FDR was the first to characterize the issue as a war. We've had recreational drugs of various types criminalized since WWI.
While you're correct on the many many many drawbacks associated with it, you're using it as a platform to unfairly and dishonestly backhand the wrong people. There's enough avanues for fair and honest criticism of Reagan that you shouldn't need to make *** up.
